I know this is a topic that our own David Tracy is sort of obsessed with: he adores high-mileage vehicles. Any excuse to feature something about a high-mileage vehicle, David will take. If we let him, David would happily have a car show that’s just wildly high-mileage vehicles, and people would walk around, poking their heads into windows to ooh and ahh at the numbers on the odometer. Actually, he might demand that the milage be painted on the windshields, used-car-lot style. Unsurprisingly, he came up with this question.
And, it’s a good one – there definitely is an allure to a high-mileage survivor! Look at that famous Volvo P1800, for example. A guy named Irv Gordon put over three million miles on that thing! So it’s worth asking, what is your highest-mileage car?
For me, this is a tricky answer, because I don’t really know for sure. I have a suspicion, though. You see, my 1973 Volkswagen Beetle had a buttocks-load of miles when I got it at 18, over 200,000 I was told, and I drove it pretty much nonstop throughout college, post-college, a move to Los Angeles, all over LA and California, including multiple trips to the Bay Area, Yosemite, and the desert, so I think it has well over 300,000 miles or so, but I really have no idea, because the person I got it from said the odometer quit and was changed out in the late Carter Administration.
And then I ran it for years with no speedo/odometer because the cable was so noisy. So I really have no clue. I think my Scion xB had about 275,000 or more, as well. It’s probably one of those two.
But you, all of you, you probably keep better records than I do, so I bet there’s some real high-mileage heroes out there! Now’s your chance to brag! Show us odometer pictures, tell us big numbers, and hell, maybe lie a little! It’ll be fun!
Any million+ mile cars out there? That’d be exciting.
My ’91 Toyota pickup made it to 230k before I sold it, and my 93 suzuki sidekick currently sits at a whopping 340,000 miles. Original engine, 5 speed manual. It most certainly runs like it has 340,000 miles on it too.
Oh I forgot to add, we had a 2007 Chevy 1500 fleet truck at one of my previous jobs, that had been purchased from a tractor dealer. I took a picture when it crossed 333,333. Massive respect to a fleet vehicle that makes it that long!
My ‘86 Saab 900 Turbo had over 511,000 miles when I retired it. My ‘88 Volvo 240 DL had just over 200,000 miles when the odometer quit 18 years ago. I figure it’s well past 400,000, now, and still rolling. My Jeep CJ8 had 342,000 miles before it turned to rust.
That red-block Slovo could probably go a million without even breaking a sweat.
The engine, I’m sure. Not sure about the body.
Or (as I’m sure is common) some of the pastiche parts like the interior center arm rest and door card pockets and such
The plastic headliner is kind of rough (mildew discoloration) and rear shelf, but the rest is in surprisingly good shape. Well, there are only two functioning door handles …
Above is a nice list of interesting rides!
I had no idea Jeep called the scrambler the cj-8, when I was a kid a local park service had one they used. I had to look that one up.
Man I wish things didn’t rust so much around here. I would love to keep a car for 300k miles but there is no chance of that happening unless I wanted to drive it like 25,000 miles a year.
After 15 years of daily use a car is pretty much on the verge of Swiss cheese. I have a knack for recognizing that moment before rust really sets in and I can sell it. then I see my car 2 years later and It’s literally dragging parts along.
Same. Around here, if you’re getting a car over the 300k mark, it doesn’t mean you’ve had it for a long time, but likely means you drive too much.
My dad bought an Astro Van back in the late 90s. First owner was a salesperson who used to drive all over the US selling boiler parts. They put 50,000 miles on it a year for 4 years. 200k miles in 4 years… then my dad bought it and we put another 100k or so on it before it started rusting terribly.
Probably the only way to own a truly high mileage car around here.
Where is “around here”?
It seems like in the US, New England (including NY), seems to be hardest on vehicle bodies due to what seems like way oversalted roads.
I’m in MN and while salt is used here in the average of 5-6 months of winter like weather, I don’t see that many swiss cheese rusted cars. Although to be fair it is also pretty rare to see Any car here that is +20 years old outside of summer time crusing in classics
Cleveland, Ohio.
Yes, Salt is 100% the issue. Our pavement is white all winter long (with salt not snow). It’s amazing. I literally have to vacuum the salt dust out of my garage in the spring from what falls off my car all winter.
I just sold a 2008 Saturn Vue. Garage kept. There were holes in parts of the underbody the size of a baseball. Mechanically perfect, but getting ready to turn into dust.
Three running BMWs with more than 175k miles:
E39: 178k
E38: 191k
E46: 193k
Can someone translate that into Toyota equivalent miles?
That’s about 40 miles on a Toyota.
All of those Toyota’s from that era are currently in junk yards, sir.
Running, but at what cost? Just joking, if well cared, these things go as far as any Toyota.
All good, they are the typical BMW headaches everyone fears and complains about.
E38 (01 740i Sport) was a rescue situation for sure. Had a clean body (straight and original paint in great condition) with failing timing chain guides which I bought for $800. More time and money put into it then common sense. A few minor leaks here and there and a noisy differential but she runs like a top.
E39 (02 530i 5MT Sport) is rock solid other than I need to pull the transmission to replace a work input shaft seal and redo the shift linkage bushings.
E46 (03 330i 6MT Sport) is the newest one in the camp. Need to replace the catalytic convertors (bought a set of Originals for $300) and need to repaint the hood.
I have more money into them maintenance wise then what I paid for them with me doing all the repairs myself. I figure one BMW goes as far as five lexi from a maintenance cost perspective.
I think for the next project I am going to find a Lexus and make it handle more like a BMW. Should be cheaper.
It can be done. The LS has a good basic suspension design and can be tweaked pretty easily. Both of the LS 400s I owned got lightly tweaked–different springs (Eibachs on the first one, fresh stock springs on the second), poly sway bar bushings and a big, honking Addco rear sway bar (close to 1″ diameter, solid) really made it feel much more neutral in twisties, yet still rode stock-ish. Also, for the first gen LS, Koni made a yellow/sport strut insert. Any more, the real challenge is finding a clean LS that the kidz haven’t stanced/VIP/turned into a dorifto missle.
I sold my van at 347k. Lifted, windowless, DHL-yellow, Advanced-4×4 converted E-250 with the 5.4.
It brought all the boys to the party at the ski hills.
2000 Honda Civic – 215k
I’d have to look at my stored records, but was one of the following: 1989 Toyota Camry wagon, 1989 Volvo 740 wheeze-wagon, or (most likely) 1989 Mazda 626 DX with the stick shift, and was on the end of its second clutch’s usable lifespan. I wanna say the Mazda had 265K miles on when it was retired to the great parking spot in the sky, but that might have been the Volvo.
Honorable mention: my brother stored his 425K-mile 2005 F-450 on my driveway for a year, so it was sort of “mine”.
when I sold it, my ’95 chevy S10 had +325k on the ODO. I drove that thing all through school/college/work every day into the city and back, sold it in ’07 or so.
my dad’s got an 01 Silverado that I think we’ve gone passed 400k at this point, he drove it every day until he got a different commuter, but we still kept the truck for moving and such, a couple years ago, instead of selling it he rebuilt the motor, so it’s still going strong.
Currently driving my kid’s 1983 Mercedes 300TD as a daily driver; the odometer broke at 211k miles decades ago but the previous two owners were mobile techs who had to keep track of their miles for work so when my kid bought the 300TD some five or six years ago it was reckoned to have some 340k miles on it. Now it’s probably in the neighborhood of 400k miles, still running its original engine. So far so good, knock on wood.
2001 Astro Van AWD….and a Toyota t100 killed it at 336528 miles!
315k miles on my 1997 F250 with the 7.3L Powerstroke when I sold it last year. Man that was stupid, I miss that truck.
My 1965 Beetle has ???,??? miles on it. Says 32k, but I got it 17 years ago with ~5k on the odo and it had been recently been pulled out of a field and a rebuilt motor shoved in. So 132k? 232k? 532k? It’s beat to shit so nothing would surprise me.
I have an E60 BMW 550i, nearly all original apart from having done an alternator, valve cover gaskets, and an alternator oil gasket. Factory ZF6 automatic trans, never bothered to change its fluid. It has a tow hitch, and I’ve pulled up to 2,000lbs for a few thousand miles at a time, most recently I drove it to Steamboat as I work there seasonally during the winter.
A German, V8, RWD, sports sedan just rolled 321k miles.
“I think my Scion xB had about 275,000…”
It didn’t. It currently sits at 234,671 which is still nothing to sneeze at.
I had a 92 accord that i got rid of with about 197kmiles on it after i got myself an 05 legacy with 9000miles. The legacy made it to 201 k miles that i got rid after i got a 17 wrx sitting at close to 117k miles now, and i plan on keeping it until 200k too. Also, had a 91 Subaru Loyale wagon that it was sold at 184k miles, and a 92 integra that blew up its engine at 160K.
330,000 miles on a 2004 Volvo S60 T5.
All of my old cars would roll over after 99999 miles, so it was almost always unknown. Even the registration was maybe it’s just been once around the 99999 once.
I would have taken a permanent marker and write a 1 or 2 or whatever in front of the barrel, lol
It’s on my automotive bucket list to get a car over the 300k mile mark, but the universe appears unwilling to let that happen. My dad’s 1998 Camry passed to me briefly in high school, to my brother for medical school/residency, and back to me at 260k miles two years ago. One of my neighbors promptly obliterated the left rear quarter panel, then a year later another neighbor stole and totalled it. Fun neighborhood.
Last year, I bought a 240k mile Saab 9-5 sedan and invested copious time and money into getting it running right, but I mostly ended up resentful of its small issues and sold it off.
So now my high-mileage hero is the Saab 9-5 wagon I got around Thanksgiving with 195k miles. It’s a peach and comes with a terrifyingly large stack of relatively recent maintenance receipts, so the quest to 300k begins in earnest anew.
Ah, another recipient of “Dad’s 1998 Camry”.
I salute your 9-5 wagon quest. Godspeed.
As a mechanical engineer, I maintain that the XV20 Camry is the best-engineered thing that humanity has ever produced. Not the Apollo spacecraft. Not the Golden Gate Bridge. Not the Pilot G2 pen (‘sup, fellow mock trial nerds!). Camry.
Thing was simply rock-solid for sure. Still the quietest car I’ve ever driven? Which is nuts for a 90’s family sedan. The NVH work done on that car was remarkable, as well as the reality that the damn thing never, ever broke.
Might need to move first, though?
A year from now, “another neighbor dropped a tree on it”
I do all my wrenching on the street, so I am admittedly menacing the whole neighborhood with oil stains and a rotating cast of shitboxes parked outside. The Camry might’ve been a revenge hit.
At least you have a great sense of humor about it all, it goes a long way! 🙂
Aw thanks, you’re a peach.
144,000 miles on a 1983 Toyota Corona. I put 120,000 on a 2002 Honda Civic Si and passed it down to grandchildren, it got to 180,000 before it was sold out of the family. I purchased each of these cars new.
In the Autopian universe, these figures are probably on a little more than break-in miles.
If 180,000 miles is break-in, then I really must’ve beat the shit outta my ’06 Dakota! Bought it at 109,543 miles and sent it to the scrapheap after a bit of a smoke show at like 114,500 or so.
I have a 2001 BMW 325i with 215k miles, and I have a 1982 Mercedes 300td with 200k plus (odometer broke at 190k ten years ago when I bought it).
High miles don’t scare me.
I’ve had a couple of Suburbans that had over 250K on them before I parted ways with them. Those things would just run.
I have no idea, several of my cars have only had 5 digit odometers and were already sort of old when I bought them. The Super Beetle I drove in high school showed like 60,000 miles when I got it and 90,000 when I sold it, but it was 30+ years old, who knows if it turned over or how many times. Same with the Chevy I have now, shows 54,000, but it’s 60 years old, so, who knows? I’m reasonably confident on that one, but I only have the records from the second owner, 1967-2015, so there’s 8 years unaccounted for
Highest verified is my Crown Vic, which is sitting at a bit over 153,000, I bought it last June at 144,000. Have had a Volvo pass 130k, a Camaro pass 100k, and a Cadillac hit 123k, but I just don’t tend to hold on to cars for long enough, for various, often shifting, reasons
The 1993 Mercury Sable I drove through high school and college had 327,000 miles on it when we sold it in ~2010. Original real major repair was a transmission rebuild (and things that wore out like struts and shocks).
I had a 1998 Camry with 250k on it back in the day. It was beige. My dad backed it up into a dumpster at work, so it had the patented Camry Dent. I eventually replaced it with a 2011 Hyundai Accent hatch, which was one of the worst decisions a human could make with their money.
None of this information is anything other than a list of stereotypes, but it’s true.
very few of my cars have ever had fewer than 300000 kilometers on them; my first Volvo 240 had 389k when I sold it. my current 240’s odometer reads 6, so I can only assume it’s north of 350k.
No metrics, that’s cheating!
Taking it from the top, a 94 Miata with 207,000 miles (currently serving daily duty despite fistable rust holes and the water resistance of a paper canoe), 08 GTI with 201,000 (timing belt replacement commencing soon), and a 13 Fit with 134,000 that moves about once a month now.